The future of freedom in the United States will always rely on courageous individuals willing to defend their individual rights and oppose overreaching government. That’s why entering this holiday season, we at the Goldwater Institute are thankful for the many Americans who stood with us this year to defend liberty.
We’re grateful for Elijah Stacy, who as a boy was diagnosed with a fatal muscle wasting disease and has since dedicated his life to eliminating others’ suffering—including advocating for Goldwater’s Right to Try for Individualized Treatment. We’re thankful for Nicole Graves, a mom who fought for parents’ rights after her Indiana school district retaliated against her for recording a conversation with her daughter’s principal. And we tip our hat to property-rights defender Jim Griset, who refused to cave when Prescott, Ariz., officials illegally attempted to block permits for his proposed boutique hotel, even though it met every objective criteria.
The Goldwater Institute will always stand for liberty from coast to coast, and we’re forever grateful to the many exemplary individuals who stand with us in this crucial effort.
‘No’ to the IRS’s Donor Doxxing Mandate
Every year, when nonprofits submit paperwork to the IRS, they’re required to turn over the private information of their largest donors. But providing that information to the government can make those donors targets for doxxing and retaliation—and, remarkably, the IRS concedes it doesn’t even need it to crack down on tax fraud.
That’s why this week the Goldwater Institute joined a friend of the court brief in a lawsuit challenging the IRS’s donor disclosure requirement. The lawsuit, brought by our friends at the Buckeye Institute in Ohio, builds on a 2021 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that nonprofits cannot be forced to turn over their IRS paperwork to the state. The new lawsuit contends that they shouldn’t be required to turn it over to the IRS in the first place.
Donor disclosure mandates are often also sold as tools for “transparency,” but by taking away people’s privacy—and frightening people away from expressing themselves—they’re ultimately bad for liberty and democracy. After all, transparency is for the government—privacy is for individuals.
Goldwater Backs Government Transparency at Arizona Supreme Court
Public records laws exist to ensure that citizens know how the government conducts public business and spends taxpayer dollars. That’s why Goldwater Institute attorneys urged the Arizona Supreme Court this week to compel the city of Phoenix to comply with Arizona’s Public Records Law and release records related to their labor union negotiations.
When Goldwater requested the city’s union negotiations records, Phoenix leaders claimed that keeping them hidden was in the “best interests of the state”—they speculated that releasing the records “may result” in the “politicization” of the negotiations. Goldwater attorneys are now urging the court to clarify the scope of the judge-made “best interests” exception to the records law and to reiterate that to withhold public records, the government must demonstrate that a specific, “material” harm is probable.
This was the Goldwater Institute’s fourteenth time arguing for the before its home state’s highest court. As always, Goldwater will fight for open, transparent government in Arizona and around the country.
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